[25 August 2011]
Hong Kong student entrepreneurs triumph at SMU's 6th Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition
Singapore, 25 August 2011 (Thursday) – Their arduous journey to victory began in January 2011 and ended with the team from the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China, walking off jubilantly with the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition's top prize of US$36,000. The team had earlier impressed the judges and audience with a slick and well-prepared presentation of their business plan for Eco$ave, a new eco-friendly and money-saving detergent that comes with an innovative, specially-designed dispenser called Just-A-Press to release the right amount of detergent for a range of cleaning needs.
First and Second Runners-up
Duke University's team from the United States clinched the second prize (cash prize of US$12,000) with their business plan for their Waste to Watts project, a low-cost back-up power supply designed specifically for the energy needs of the developing world, while the representative from the University of Cape Town, South Africa claimed third prize (cash prize of US$3,000) \with his business idea for DryBath™, a patent-pending bath substitute lotion developed by his company, Headboy Industries, which will be a boon in countries without easily available sources of clean water.
Consolation Prizes for the Other Three Finalists
The other three finalists comprising the team from Indiana University and Purdue University at Fort Wayn, USA, the University of Waterloo, Canada, and the National University of Singapore were awarded consolation prizes of US$500 each.
Most Promising Young Entrepreneur Award
Twenty-year-old Ludwick Phofane Marishane, a third-year student majoring in Accounting and Finance from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, who started the invention development and commercialization company, Headboy Industries Inc., won the Most Promising Young Entrepreneur Award and a cash prize of S$5,000. While growing up in rural Africa, the budding entrepreneur had invented DryBath™ while he was only in grade 11 at high school. He has been voted the best student entrepreneur in his country and just earlier this year in April, he was announced as one of the 12 winners of Google's annual Zeitgeist Young Minds Competition, which is to identify the world's brightest young minds expected to be the pioneers, change-makers and leaders of tomorrow.
Audience's Choice for Most Promising Young Entrepreneur Award
Introduced for the first time this year at the competition is an “Audience's Choice” award for the winner of the Most Promising Young Entrepreneur title to be picked by popular vote via smses sent by members of the audience at the end of all the finalists' presentations. The audience agreed with the judges' choice as they also picked Ludwick Phofane Marishane as the winner of the Most Promising Young Entrepreneur Award.
Selected for Sponsorship of Three-month Exposure Stint in the Silicon Valley
The teams from the University of Waterloo from Canada and the National University of Singapore were picked from among the six finalists by Plug and Play Tech Center, a thriving Silicon Valley community of more than 300 start-ups from all over the world with the mission to help start-up companies grow, to undergo a three-month exposure stint in the Silicon Valley.
Entrepreneurship Study Mission
Earlier, the finalists had a chance to network with local venture capitalists, owners of start-up companies and technology incubation managers over three days (22 to 24 August) as part of the competition's Entrepreneurship Study Mission (ESM) segment, enabling them to better understand the local innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, as well as discuss their business ideas and obtain advice from their respective business mentors. The ESM segment is sponsored by Spring Singapore and Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE).
Teo Ser Luck Says Singapore Has the Potential to Excel in New Media Innovations
In his address at the Awards Presentation Dinner, Mr Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State for Trade and Trade and Industry, cited the success story of SMU Information Systems Management graduate Leonard Lin, whose team emerged second runner-up in the 2005/2006 Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition with their business plan for TYLER Projects, which has since grown into a profitable social network game developer and consultant with an annual revenue of more than S$1 million and whose creation, Battle Stations, bears the distinction of being Singapore's first Facebook multiplayer game with 3.5 million registered users all over the world.
Mr Teo said, “Singapore has every potential to make use of new social media to innovate, create and develop new products and services that will capture the world's imagination, create a lifestyle trend or change the way that people live and work.”
Young Innovators With a Social Conscience
Commenting on the submissions of the finalists of the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Compettion, Professor Arnoud De Meyer, President of SMU, said, “It is heartening to note that the majority of the six teams that qualified for the final round of the competition have come up with projects that take into consideration their impact on the environment and are geared towards long-term sustainability. It shows that not only are these young people creative and innovative, but they also care about creating a better world and a sustainable future”.
Organized by SMU's Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE), the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition was launched in 2001 to fulfil the entrepreneurial dreams of tertiary students around the world. This year, the competition attracted the submission of some 200 business plans from more than 600 tertiary students in 17 different countries.
Details about the Supporters are in Annex 1.
Details about the Finalists are in Annex 2.
About the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition
Launched in 2001 and named after Singapore's Minister Mentor who developed the defining business plan for the Republic, the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition provides an opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to test their business ideas and pit their business acumen against students from renowned international institutions all over the world.
Organized by the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Singapore Management University, the biennial competition is into its sixth run and is open to all undergraduates, as well as college and polytechnic students from around the world. Students are required to submit business plans for a start-up or early-stage venture and compete for a total of US$60,000 worth of cash prizes. The winning team will take home US$36,000, the first runner-up US$12,000, the second runner-up US$3,000, and the other finalists US$500 per team.
Since the competition was launched in 2001, it has attracted more than 1,000 business plan entries from over 75 tertiary institutions around the world. This year, the competition attracted the submission of some 200 business plans from more than 600 tertiary students in 17 different countries.
About the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at SMU
The Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) at SMU was set up in September 2009 to promote, nurture and develop a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst students, staff and faculty members of SMU through collaborations within and beyond the community. The IIE is committed to help innovators commercialize their business ideas and aspires to build high-quality and robust start-ups within SMU and the larger community through research, strategy, training, research and development (R&D), business incubation, intellectual property management, education and knowledge sharing. The IIE will continue to play the role of a strategic innovation partner and aim to be the preferred partner for research and the practice of innovation and entrepreneurship, working closely with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, early-stage venture capitalists, academic institutions and individual researchers.